‘The View’: Joy Behar Reverses Course, Thinks Biden Will Drop Out Now (VIDEO)

Amanda Bell July 18, 2024, 11:49 am

Joy Behar describes Mike Pence at the VP debate 2020 — ABC

Ever since the conversation about whether incumbent President Joe Biden will remain in the 2024 presidential race against Donald Trump began, Joy Behar has been a vocal advocate for his continued candidacy. There’ve been several long and heated discussions about this on The View, and Behar has been steadfastly in Biden’s corner, expressing extreme frustration (her exact words were “pissed off”) with the calls for him to step down.

On Thursday’s (July 18) episode, though, Behar sang a different tune altogether.

Following reports that several top-level members of the Democratic party — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, current House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and California senate candidate and current Rep. Adam Schiff — have “privately” called on Biden to withdraw from the election, Behar expressed a change of heart.

“It’s so depressing, the whole thing. I think that he’s going to drop out now. That’s my feeling. I mean, I don’t have any information, but when Pelosi gets into this and Schumer and Schiff and Jeffries and they all say, ‘It’s time to go.’ The Covid, in a way, is like a good way for him to get out because he needs this time to show how strong he is, and he’s sick, and the time is very, very short now, so I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I wouldn’t put it past them to just say, ‘Look, Joe, we can’t.'”

Behar reasoned that Pelosi’s political acumen carries a lot more weight than most, saying, “Nancy Pelosi, she would not bring a vote to the floor unless she knew it was going to get passed. This is not a woman who plays games, and she doesn’t feel that he can win.” Behar cited Pelosi’s disbelief that Trump would win in 2016, adding, “I think she’s learned her lesson that she said he wasn’t going to win and then he did. So she’s very cautious now.”

.@JoyVBehar reacts to calls from top Democrats like Rep. Adam Schiff for Pres. Biden to step aside as the party’s nominee in 2024. pic.twitter.com/ENiLMa7mXh

— The View (@TheView) July 18, 2024

For Sara Haines, an independent, the conversations being had with Biden reminded her of “tak[ing] the keys away from grandpa,” but also delivered a three-point list of reasons she’ll vote blue no matter who this time around: protecting reproductive rights, opposing tax shelters for billionaires, and continuing non-isolationist foreign policy.

.@SaraHaines: “Anyone with an elderly parent or someone who’s in a condition, sometimes you have to step in. So I think the public campaign just shows the pressures and what people are seeing behind the doors and that it’s concerning.” pic.twitter.com/8uIQ2ygeey

— The View (@TheView) July 18, 2024

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Alyssa Farah Griffin echoed Behar’s prediction. Griffin, who was one of the first The View stars to demand Biden step down after the debate, said, “I actually think that Biden is ultimately going to step aside. I think that he recognizes the stakes of the election, and I think that Democrats who know how to win elections and know that this has consequences down-ballot for the House and for the Senate are going to get through to him. I think we could be having a very different conversation in just a week or two.” For her, the question was whether the de facto replacement candidate would be current Vice President Kamala Harris: “Does it then immediately become Vice President Harris, or is there some kind of an open convention where they kind of test the strengths? This will become appointment viewing. 10s of millions of Americans will tune in because six in 10 Americans didn’t want this rematch. So they’re going to want to see, what are the other options? What’s the option other than Trump? And there’s a three-month window to do this, which I actually think could be effective to introduce someone to the public and to get folks actually energized.”

.@Alyssafarah: “Biden is ultimately going to step aside. I think that he recognizes the stakes of the election… Democrats who know how to win elections and know that this has consequences down ballot for the House and for the Senate, are going to get through to him.” pic.twitter.com/YYOo6ianCp

— The View (@TheView) July 18, 2024

However, Sunny Hostin contended that any effort to sidestep Harris as the immediate alternative would receive major backlash from Black voters.

“Kamala, if she is leapfrogged, and there’s some open convention, no Democratic nominee can win without the Black vote [and] Black women will not support Kamala Harris being looked over. Why? Because she is ready to be the president, she’s been in the Oval Office with him. She’s been in the situation room with him. How dare people suggest that she is incompetent?” However, she also argued that the focus of the media should be on Project 2025 and not Biden.

“[Pres. Biden] still has my vote because he has Vice Pres. Harris right next to him,” @Sunny Hostin says. “Democrats, instead of throwing Joe Biden under the bus, need to start talking more about [Project 2025].”

“It is the scariest thing you will ever read.” pic.twitter.com/SD51DcZ4iw

— The View (@TheView) July 18, 2024

Whoopi Goldberg, for one, stuck to her convictions about wanting Biden to remain in the race, saying, “We knew four years ago that he was an older man. We knew that if he was going to run twice, this was what was going to happen. So either you trust it or you don’t. I’m choosing to trust it.”

The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC